Books continued to be neat in 2017. (I squeezed in some extra reads this year by listening to audio books while walking the dog. It’s all about time-management, people!) Let’s not waste time and get right to the categories.

TOP 5 FAVORITES PUBLISHED (in English) IN 2017

Thing We Lost in the Fire, Marina Enriquez. This collection was a revelation. Dark, smart, sociopolitical, enthralling, Shirley Jackson-esque in feel.

The Changeling, Victor LaValle. A brilliant mash up of parental anxieties (there’s a scene toward the beginning of the novel that is as intense and uncomfortable yet recognizable as any scene I’ve read), life in Trumplandia, and dark fairy tales.

Ill Will, Dan Chaon. A maddening and magnificent puzzle-box of a novel.

She Said Destroy, Nadia Bulkin. The second collection to crack the top 5. More sociopolitical horror that challenges (and disturbs) without ever being didactic.

Mapping the Interior, Stephen Graham Jones. When I first heard that Tor.com would be publishing novellas, I was skeptical. (Why? Why answer in a parenthetical? I’m afraid of new things?) But their books are unflaggingly daring and compelling. Jones’s has been my favorite of the stellar bunch. A very personal story that manages to crawl inside the reader and take root.

MORE 2017 BOOKS YOU SHOULD BUY OR LOAN FROM YOUR LIBRARY BUT RETURN THEM IN A REASONABLE TIME SO OTHERS MAY ENJOY THESE EXCELLENT BOOKS AS WELL DON’T BE SELFISH

Mandelbrot the Magnificent by Liz Ziemska, Running by Cara Hoffman, The World to Come by Jim Shepard, The Night Ocean by Paul LaFarge, Landscape with Invisible Hand by M. T. Anderson, Devil’s Day by Andrew Michael Hurley, Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan, Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix.

FAVORITE BOOK FEATURING A TALKING CRAB

The Hike, Drew Magary

FAVORITE GRAPHIC NOVEL

Roughneck by Jeff Lemire

FAVORITE BOOKS READ FOR THE FIRST TIME NOT FROM 2017

2666 by Roberto Bolano, Full Dark No Stars by Stephen King, Dead Mountain: The Untold Story of the Diatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar, The North Water by Ian McGuire, The Handmaiden’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

There ya go. There were many more very good books read and you can check out my Goodreads page for the full accounting.